Our Ten Best--Tacos

Rough-hewn corn tortillas constitute our connection with Mexico's remote past, when women slaked tiny ears of corn with lye procured from blackened seashells to make masa. To put in those tortillas, they made chile-rich sauces, while their husbands sojourned in search of wild boar, crunchy insects, armadillos, and iguana to make the fillings.

Two decades ago, the city's only chance to sample these world-class tacos came at several removes: our only Mexican food was an inherited version of Tex-Mex, which substituted flour tortillas for corn, ground beef for wild boar, and Velveeta-type cheese for the queso blanco of Oaxaca.

Then the Great Migration occurred, in which tens of thousands of citizens from southern Mexican states like Puebla and Guerrero came north, and formed the backbone of the city's burgeoning restaurant industry. In small cafes they created for themselves, they struggled to recreate the cuisine brought from home, using newly imported ingredients, and it became one of their many gifts to all New Yorkers.

Which spot shapes their goat taco like a cone, and it's so big you need a fork to eat it? Hint: It's number six on our list.